Evolution. Can it still be classed as a theory?

Question

With all the evidence provided by remnants of creatures long dead(fossils) and the similarities between these creatures and those of today, how can evolution be considered a theory? Surely it should be considered a fact.

Is it simply the idea that humans evolved from primates that offends people?

No excessive ranting please. Religious or not.

This "Why are monkeys still around" argument.

Firstly, we are thought to have evolved from primates, not monkeys. There is a huge difference.

Secondly, the reason there are still primates and monkeys around is because evolution takes many paths. It's called diversity and it is not just the supos'ed God that favours it.

Thirdly, the monkeys and primates that are around today differ greatly from those around millions of years ago. It's not like time stood still for them either.

If not fact, then as an acceptable theory. Is there not more evidence to support it that any creation myth?

Answer 1

The people who point out that just about *everything* in science is a theory, are correct. In science, a theory is just about the highest compliment you can place of a body of statements. A theory is an *explanation* of certain facts. E.g. "I have a fossil" is a fact. "It was found in a layer of rocks" is a fact. "The rocks are dated to 68 million years old." is a fact (although creationists, amazingly, dispute even that fact). Therefore we infer that the fossil is 68 million years old (here's where the anti-scientists try to erode the concept of inference). Put a *lot* of these facts together ("fossil A is X million years old." Fossil B is Y million years old", etc.) and evolution acts as an *explanation* for all these facts.

It is still called a theory because one of the following is always possible:
(1) some fossil N may be discovered that is the wrong age; or
(2) someone may come up with a better explanation for the same facts. (A valid 'scientific explanation' actually has to explain something ... so "God spoke" is not an explanation ... and "an intelligence just designed it" is not an explanation, because it just shifts the need to explain the intelligence and its mechanisms of design ... i.e. it replaces a simple theory with a more complex one.)
So far, neither (1) nor (2) has occurred ... so evolution is still the best explanation we have of the existing facts ... but it is still, and always will be, a 'theory'.

Incidentally, you wrote: "Is it simply the idea that humans evolved from primates that offends people?" Good question! I am always amazed by this. In fact, we didn't just evolve from primates, we ARE primates. Some people are personally offended by this classification. This is surprising to me because it is just an issue of definitions and classifications ... like whether Pluto is a "planet."

I.e. the same people are not offended at the fact that we are classified as "mammals" or "vertebrates" ... but they suddenly feel personally insulted that we are classified as "primates" ... or even moreso that we are "apes" (which is just a classification that basically means "tailless primates"). On the other hand, some people even bristle at the notion that humans are classified as animals of any sort! It's all just classification ... but some people just need science to validate that we are "special." It's so childish. :-)

Answer 2

Ask any scientist and they will tell you everything in every science book is a "theory". Why? because as more information is acquired, learned, gathered or whatever, the theory can be updated. Even Einstein's Special and General Theories are just that: theories. Yes, they have been confirmed over and over with extremely high degrees of precision, but they are still theories. Some one some where MAY some day find a bit of information and come up with a better theory to explain gravity and the universe. No, not likely, but it could happen. Even Einstein said, however, "I know just enough to realise how much I do not know." So, there is always more to learn to add to or even possibly replace a theory.

In answer to your last question, yeah even though some people truly act like they are, they think they cannot possibly be descended from primates.

Answer 3

It is a theory until absolutely proven. It has status as an accepted theory because it accounts for scientific evidence that has acculmulated and predicts circumstances that are observed in the present or future.

Similarly, Einstein still has the Theory of Relativity. Plenty of things are based on this, yet it is still a theory because it has not been proven incontrovertably. If it were it would become a Law.

This is simply a scientific naming convention based on a standard set long ago. In this day and age it doesn't make it any less valid, just that science has become harder to definitively prove with the technologies at hand.


Note: I'd never heard of this "we can't have evolved because there are still primates" thing until I came to Yahoo Answers. Are they teaching that during church in the midwest or something?

Answer 4

The difference between fact and fiction oftentimes gets confusing.

I stick with cold hard facts.

If you can't buy into the evolution theory, then you can't buy into the age of earth and the other possibilities being explored of life on other planets.

Fossils offer cold hard facts.

Those who believe in a supreme being as their God are entitled to their beliefs as long as it doesn't go to extremes where they kill other people who have differing views.

The truth is often difficult to find in a world divided by differing beliefs.

There is always the possibility of a supreme being from a distant place that some call Heaven, so it's good to keep an open mind on the subject.

Of all the creatures and humans that came and went from earth, who among us can say if they haven't been reincarnated?

Answer 5

its not a fact.

theories are made to explain facts...its really a higher order. Theories are used to make predictions and open to be proven wrong so thats why its called a theory. There are still on going debates as to if its a valid theory.

And yes and more; it introduces the idea that there may not be a creator. Some people say we cant happen by chance, even though evolution is anything but chance. mutations happen by chance; evolution itself selects which mutations are helpful to the organism. secondly, evolution only explains the trend of life, not how it started so i dont get why some people bring up the point that God created life when evolution isnt even about how life started.

Answer 6

evolution scares people because they don't want to live in a place where G-d doesn't exist. The argument is not about evolution at all, it is about taking away things from the real of G-d and putting them in the realm of logic. The more things science can explain the less power G-d has. These people are terrified of the idea that one day scienc will have all the answers and we won't need G-d at all.

Answer 7

I think people refuse to accept evolution because of religious purposes. They believe that God is the creator of living things. On the other hand, evolution makes a lot of sense. I took a course during my sophmore year of college called Bones, Stones, and Human Evolution and it was the most interesting class ever. Evolution is logical and we see it with all creatures in the animal kingdom.

Answer 8

Facts can be repeated.
Stones fall at a certain rate governed by gravity. - Fact
I can repeat this experiment over and over and show the specifics of how a rock falls.

Evolution happened in the past. It cannot be done over and over again. We can only show evidence that it MAY have occured and how it MIGHT have happened but it can never be moved into the category of fact.

Anything that happens in the past is up to debate and theorising. Anything that can be repeated is in the realm of science to answer.

Answer 9

There are 2 parts to evolution:

1. The FACT that evolution has occurred, does occur and will continue to occur.
2. The scientific THEORY of the mechanisms that drive evolution.

We did not evolove from apes. We share common ancestors with apes.

It's like asking "If I descended from my great-grandfather, why do I have cousins?".

Answer 10

Please! What "Evidence"? The evidence doesn't give a link for a period of like 4000 years! And if we DID evolve FROM Primates, why are there still primates and how come we do not have any that are in the halfway stage here now?

And what about the 'evidence' that was brought forth, proclaimed as ESSENTIAL to the evolutionary cause and then RECANTED by the scientist who brought it forth as a HOAX ? It was pieces of two different animal skulls that he had put together as a JOKE? That is one of the biggest 'factual ' pieces of bone evidence evolutionist rest their case on and it is a hoax. I can't let my children be taught a theory of science that rests its evidenciary case on a hoax, shards of fossils and theorums. I can , however, base my beliefs on the Bible and my faith in a loving creator who designed a world and a universe with wonderful clarity and design, that, when examined closely, makes one feel and know that there has got to be ahigher power.
I believe that alot of the people who believe in evolution are so caught up in the beauty of science and the why's and wherefore's that they just can't admit that there just MIGHT be something out there, something that is intangible ( an NO -NO in science!) that is greater than their microscopes, their telescopes, all of their ---ometers. Something that IS UN-explainable but that has to be taken on faith.
Looking around the world I live in , I see God everyday. In the Water Cycle, the way trees carry water up thru their trunks ALL the way up to their topmost branches without any kind of machinery. How birds fly south... and then north again, each year finding the exact same places without a roadmap or a radar screen .How Bats can navigate at night and how the blind are now learning how to use the techniques that the bats and the dolphins use to locate their way around and to even ride bikes and do other things, previously unheard of!! To me, that is proof enough, by far, that God does exist and he Did make all things , and all things for a purpose.